Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (8 page)

“How’s the business, Leah?” Austin replied
genuinely curious and I looked up at him to spot a glimmer in his
blue eyes.

“Oh, business is the same as always. What
can I get for you today?” Leah questioned while pulling out ice
cream scoops from the water they were kept in, “And who is this
with you?”

“This is Arianna,” Austin told her, his hand
lightly resting on my shoulder clenched when the whispers grew
louder. “And I’ll take a scoop of butter pecan in a waffle
cone.”

“And for you, Arianna?” Leah inquired while
I was looking through the glass at my options.

“Turtle?” I whispered and she smiled and
nodded, “A waffle cone is fine.”

“You two can sit down and I’ll bring them
out to you,” Leah offered and with his hand still on my shoulder,
Austin led me to one of the old-fashioned two-seater high tables
and sat across from me, his back to two of the groups of
teenagers.

“Anna,” Austin beckoned, and I pulled my
gaze away from inspecting them back to Austin, “Ignore them or
you’re going to draw more attention to yourself.”

“More? Why am I drawing
any
attention
to myself?” I pressed, but I stared into his blue eyes
intently.

“You’re new, they don’t know you… it’s not a
huge town to begin with…” Austin reasoned with a shrug, “The city
is huge… this is not part of the city… and it is not huge… everyone
knows everybody else.”

“Speaking of… why does everyone know you?” I
pestered and he chuckled softly.

“I came to visit Dad a lot when he first
moved here… during summer break when you and Jason were at summer
camp, I’d come visit Dad for the summer,” he reasoned with a shrug,
“I’ve always liked it here, that’s why I decided to try for this
college. It’s really difficult to get into, actually….”

“Is that why your grades improved so much?”
I laughed and he nodded seriously just before Leah brought over two
waffle cones and handed them to us.

“You two enjoy, and don’t let those other
kids bug you,” Leah commented with a grin, her eyes flicking to me
before lingering on Austin, “She’s pretty, Austin. Good job.”

“Thanks,” Austin chuckled and Leah walked
away again while Austin looked over at me with a twinkle in his
bright blue eyes. “Arianna, you’re blushing,” he whispered which
only worsened the heat in my face while I darted my attention to
the table.

“We’re still legally brother and sister,” I
mumbled, eating my ice cream slowly while my attention wandered to
the groups of teenagers again and my gray eyes met a pair of bright
emerald eyes. “And everyone’s still watching us….” The emerald eyes
were partially hidden beneath shaggy blonde hair, on the face of a
rather gorgeous guy; a guy wearing jeans and a plain t-shirt, but
he somehow stood out from the others and looked like a model.

“Anna,” Austin beckoned and I pulled my
attention away from the staring emerald eyes back to him curiously.
“Don’t… not the ones here… please….”

“What?” I pressed and he sighed.

“Please don’t fall for some guy here…
there’s some guy behind me and you think he’s attractive… right?”
Austin wondered and I blinked in surprise before shrugging.

“There’s a guy behind you that stands out
and is staring at me, and he has really pretty eyes,” I retorted
simply, “I hadn’t thought too much past that. Austin… since you
never let me have a boyfriend, I kinda stopped letting myself get
my hopes up that some guy was going to ask me out….” I paused for a
long moment before sighing. “It was like… why get interested in a
guy and get to thinking about ‘ooh, maybe he’ll ask me out’ when I
knew that was never going to happen?”

“Then please don’t stare at him… he’ll think
you’re interested, and come over here,” he stopped mid-sentence
because the emerald-eyed guy had gotten up and left his group to
walk over to the table.

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” he started
in a sweet, melodic voice, “Are you Arianna Gray? Detective Gray’s
daughter? And Austin Gray?” He only let his gaze wander to Austin
briefly, focusing intently on me, but I darted my eyes between him
and Austin before staring into my ice cream.

“Yes, we are,” Austin answered with an edge
to his voice, “But Arianna is adopted, not exactly my father’s
daughter.”

“I see,” the guy remarked, laughing faintly,
“Austin Gray… I’m Jack Clayborne, and I’d like to show your adopted
sister around town, if that’s all right.”

I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing,
but I couldn’t stop myself from smiling and chancing a glance at
Jack who was smiling kindly at Austin, but winked when he glanced
at me.

“I’m sorry, but my dad wants her with either
me or my little brother at all times,” Austin countered with his
fake friendly smile.

“Jason Gray, right?” Jack questioned and a
tiny giggle passed my lips, “We can show him around, too. I’d offer
to show you around, Austin, but quite frankly, I remember when you
used to come visit every summer.”

“Yeah… how’s Patrick?” Austin evasively
asked.

“Patrick’s fine. He graduated salutatorian
from our high school this past semester. He’s going to Berringfield
University this fall,” Jack explained and I spotted the tiniest
twitch in Austin’s left eye.

“Arianna doesn’t date, Jack,” Austin coldly
announced and Jack smirked and shrugged.

“Who said anything about a date? I just
wanted to show her around. Does Arianna talk?” he lightly laughed
and I giggled again, biting harder on my lip when Austin shot me a
look.

“I can talk,” I whispered, looking over to
meet Jack’s curious gaze, “I choose not to talk very much… and you
showing me around town, sounds like a date.”

“I never said it would just be me,” he
corrected coyly, “I could get a whole big group together if you’d
like. Actually, there’s a group of us headed out to the lake
tomorrow night for a bonfire; we were curious if any of you Grays
would care to come along.”

“We’ll see,” Austin nonchalantly answered
while Jack fished in his pocket and pulled out a pen and then
pulled my hand gently over to him.

“Call me,” he began, jotting down his name
and number on my palm, “No matter what you decide; so I know
whether or not to keep an eye out for you.” He met my gaze for a
long moment before glancing at Austin again, “You’re all
invited.”

His fingers curled my hand into a fist as
they slid to the table and he headed back to his group of
friends.

“Do you want to leave?” I inquired, chancing
to look up at Austin who looked probably normal to someone who
doesn’t know him, but he was definitely barely containing his
anger.

“No… you don’t walk away from a Clayborne…”
Austin uttered beneath his breath, “If I’d known who you kept
staring at… we would’ve left earlier… I want to scrub your hand
clean….” I unconsciously curled my fist tighter and pulled it into
my lap, only realizing I’d even done it because Austin’s gaze
darted down to follow my hand. “God… you want to go….”

“He said no matter what our decision was… to
call and let him know… it would be rude to just not show up…” I
countered, uncurling my hand in my lap to keep from smudging the
ink, “And I do think it would be fun if all three of us went….”

“I don’t want to share you,” Austin rebutted
almost silently while my gaze fell back to my ice cream, “I
certainly don’t want to share you with a Clayborne….”

“You’re going to have to explain that to me
at some point,” I mumbled, looking up when Jack’s group got up to
leave the ice cream parlor and he smiled and waved at me before
following his friends outside. “And I do want to go… I think it
would be fun.”

“We’ll see,” Austin dismissed, but anger
flared like heat inside of my chest.

“I’m not a little kid, Austin… and you’re
not my boyfriend… if I want to go, I’ll go, and you can’t stop me,”
I uttered, being sure to keep my voice between the two of us and
not let the nearby people hear me.

“We’ll see what Dad has to say about it…
about
that
Clayborne and his friends and if it’s
safe
to go,” Austin countered stubbornly, “Let’s get home, Anna.”

I only nodded. I’d just finished my last
bite of waffle cone; so we headed out of the ice cream parlor, not
unnoticed, and got in his car, still being watched, and started
towards home.

“Tell me about your dislike of the
Claybornes,” I asked as soon as we were out of sight of the
parlor.

“Patrick is the older one… we fought a lot
when we were younger… he’s nothing shy of an ass… and insanely
stubborn… if he thinks he’s right, there’s no changing his mind,
and he will do
anything
to get what he wants. His parents
are really the same way, so I’d hope you’d understand why I don’t
particularly like the idea of you being around any of the
Claybornes, especially not a guy that’s obviously into you,” Austin
quickly spat out, his words still tipped with anger, “If Jack is
anything like his family, he’ll do
anything
to get you.”

“And if he’s not like his family? Will you
stop being so obnoxious about it? I want to go to the bonfire,” I
rebutted and Austin sighed, glancing over at me when he could.

“We’ll see what Dad has to say… There’s no
way I’m agreeing to this whole bonfire idea unless Jason and I both
go with you… what if Mark showed up? No one would know to keep him
away from you,” Austin continued, trying to push the few buttons
that would make me not want to go to the bonfire.

“Why would he know to look at some lake that
I don’t even know where is? And I very much doubt he’d do anything
to me if there were other people around…” I tried to keep my voice
strong, but even I heard the slight quaver in it.

We reached the house still arguing, but our
arguments were silenced when we spotted Mom’s car in the driveway.
I stared in blatant shock at the BMW and Austin lost the last
thread of control he had on his anger.

“Stay in the car,” he blurted while he
slammed the car into park and jumped out, headed for the house.
“What the hell is she doing here?!” Austin yelled, he hadn’t even
made it inside, Dad had met him at the front door and Austin was
gesturing towards Mom’s car.

“I couldn’t leave her alone in her house
without protection when she had been indirectly threatened,” Dad
reasoned, his voice and posture weary as he glanced at me in
Austin’s car. “I’m putting her on a plane to her mother’s first
thing in the morning… I can’t trust her to keep her mouth shut if I
take her to town, Austin….”

“You can’t honestly expect Anna to stay here
with a mother who believed her
boyfriend
over her
daughter
; and on top of that, told him! She’s the reason
that sleazebag isn’t behind bars right now!” Austin hollered while
Jason slipped out the front door, past Dad, and headed towards me
in the car.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Austin…
Bring Anna in through the garage… your mother will be staying in
the living room,” Dad bargained as best as he could, “She won’t be
going upstairs, so you kids can just stay upstairs… I’d let you
stay in a hotel if it wasn’t such a bad idea.”

“Hey… how did the hospital and everything
go?” Jason quietly asked, crouching on the ground beside my seat
with the open door rested against his back, “Are you okay?”

“I’m all right, Jay…” I whispered and his
hand shot up to take hold of mine. “Seriously,” I assured with a
faint laugh, looking down into his worried blue-green eyes, “We
were invited to a bonfire with a bunch of people from the high
school tomorrow night.” I paused when his eyes lit up, “You, me,
and Austin… but Austin’s completely against it.”

“That’s because Austin doesn’t like sharing
you… he didn’t even want to let you go to prom with his group of
friends…” Jason murmured before sighing, “A bonfire… seriously? I
want to go!”

As if he could hear us, Austin’s gaze darted
back to his car, he was still quite furious.

“We’ll come back home later tonight… I’ll go
show them around the town, treat them to dinner… keep them
out
of the house for the most part,” Austin conceded, his
gaze intent on Dad again, “More importantly… what do you know about
Jack Clayborne and any of his friends?”

Dad’s eyes widened briefly, startled and he
laughed. “Jack’s a good kid; he stays out of trouble. He even kept
Patrick out of trouble sometimes when he got older… He hangs out
with a good group of kids. The only reason any of them register on
my radar is from volunteer work and awards,” Dad explained with a
shrug, but he caught the look in Austin’s eyes, “That wasn’t what
you wanted to hear…. Why did you ask, Austin?”

“So going to a lake bonfire with him and his
friends… you think it would be okay?” Austin evasively continued
and Dad nodded.

“Oh, absolutely! You mean the one tomorrow
night, right? They’ve already gotten all the permits and arranged
to have an officer nearby,” Dad proudly announced, but sighed and
glanced over at me, “Austin… you’re going to have to let her go
eventually… chances of her seeing past your being her brother,
adopted or not, are slim.”

“A) No,” Austin coldly stated, “B) not ever
in a million years will I let her get involved with the
Claybornes.”

“Jack lives by himself, Austin… he got a job
when he was fourteen, saved all of his money, petitioned the
courts, and moved out when he was sixteen,” Dad commented
thoughtfully, “He’s not like the other Claybornes… he’s actually
the complete opposite… he’d be an ideal candidate to trust with
Arianna… I certainly approve.”

Austin stared silently at Dad for a long
moment before turning and heading back to the car. “Get in, Jason…
I’ll show you two around town,” he directed and Jason darted to the
driver’s side to slip into the backseat before Austin got into the
driver’s seat.